Travellers want a tourism industry that is more eco-conscious

Websites help people make Earth-friendly choices

It's not easy being green. Just ask this Leaf frog from Costa Rica.

Photograph by: Rod Macivor/The Ottawa Citizen
, The Gazette

Not so long ago, your main environmentally friendly option on vacation involved leaving hotel towels on the bathroom rack so they would be reused instead of being thrown in the wash after a single use.

No more. Today, with the public twigging to tourism's heavy environmental footprint, the travel industry is scrambling to paint itself green. It's touting eco-this and sustainable-that.

Your flight's pollution can be "offset" with tree planting or investments in alternate energy sources; your hotel may reuse washing-machine water and buy only local products for its restaurant; your tour operator may donate part of its profits to helping local communities and to offset the pollution the trip creates.

At New York's Plaza Hotel, you can now organize a "100-mile menu" event, with the food coming from within 100 miles (160 kilometres) of the city. The Marriott hotel chain recently announced it will list each hotel's green initiatives on its website.

A new regional airline in Portland, Ore., recently proclaimed itself the world's first "green airline," because it uses small, fuel-efficient planes and offsets the environmental impact of the jet fuel by donating money to preserve forests in the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

Still, the travel business faces major challenges, with some environmentalists arguing it is morally wrong to travel at all because of the massive amount of greenhouse gas emissions created by each trip, particularly by airliners.

With people now able to travel to the remotest locales, tourism is one of the biggest industries in the world, one that employs countless people and keeps many poor nations afloat.

It won't be disappearing any time soon.

Annual international trips around the world are expected to double to 1.6 billion by 2020, a quarter of them by long-haul travellers, the United Nations says. But rising oil and ticket prices may encourage travellers to cut down on the number of polluting flights they take.

Concerned about climate change, travellers increasingly want to take steps to cut their holidays' environmental impact. That's easier said than done.

Before you book your trip, you'll have to do some online research to ensure you will be making a truly green trip, and not falling for so-called "greenwashing" marketing ploys.

Here are a few starting points.

WHERE TO GO

- The lowest impact vacation, of course, is one close to where you live. Be a tourist at home, using your hometown or province's tourism websites as your guide.

- The International Ecotourism Society, which has been promoting travel that "conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people" since 1990, can help you plan a trip. Search its directory (http://tinyurl.com/2b8eh3), which includes tour operators, travel agents, hotels, as well as companies offering transportation and other services.

- Sustainable Travel International (http://tinyurl.com/675dr7), a non-profit organization that promotes clean travel, uses its website to help travellers plan their trips. It also outlines credible eco-label and eco-certification programs.

The group maintains an extensive directory (http://tinyurl.com/5z8qgo) featuring hundreds of companies worldwide specializing in sustainable and responsible travel, from bed-and-breakfasts and eco-lodges to adventure travel and voluntourism (doing good on vacation).

- Ethical Traveler (www.ethicaltraveler.org) is organization for people looking for travel that's good for the environment as well as human rights.

Its website features "guidelines for ethical travel," detailed information about 10,000 destinations, and a compendium of ethical-travel sites, including some specialized travel agencies.

The outfit, which brings together travellers, travel agents, tour outfitters and industry players, recently unveiled its annual top 10 ethical travel destinations in the developing world, based on their commitment to environmental protection, social welfare and human rights. At the top of the list: Argentina, Bolivia and Bulgaria.

- If you have to fly, consider "offsetting" your trip by calculating the greenhouse gases spewed from the plane, then helping to offset its harm.

The concept is controversial. Critics note that such programs are misleading. For example, funding the planting of trees is a popular way to spend offsetting cash. But it'll take years before those trees can offset your plane's greenhouse-gas emissions.

The available programs vary greatly, in estimates of greenhouse-gas emissions produced by flights, the cost of offsetting those emissions and the amount of the payment that actually goes to environmental projects, according to a study published in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism.

So it's offset-buyer beware.

The David Suzuki Foundation has a good offsetting primer (http://tinyurl.com/2sdcxh), as well as a comprehensive list of carbon offset vendors. It highlights vendors that meet the Gold Standard (www.cdmgoldstandard.org), a system under which credits are independently validated. Gold Standard credits support only renewable energy or energy-efficient technologies, excluding other projects like those involving tree planting.

WHERE TO STAY

Hotels are notoriously wasteful. Before anyone's head can even hit a pillow, hotel construction can devastate local environments and displace communities, all for the sake of keeping tourists in the lap of luxury.

In hotels, aside from the countless towels and sheets needlessly changed and washed daily, you have lights and air conditioning/heating always on in hallways, lobbies and other public areas, and the use of huge quantities of toxic cleaning supplies. Don't forget all those tiny containers for shampoo, conditioner and lotion, many of them full of cheap, eco-unfriendly products.

Good public-relations are only part of the reason more hotels are going green. They can also cut costs by installing low-energy light bulbs, heating and air-conditioning systems, and low-flow shower heads. Other hotel operators are touting the fact that they use paint and furniture that contain fewer nasty chemicals, and that they offer fair pay for workers and support for local residents.

Unfortunately, much of the online data about hotels is not independently verified. The information is self-reported by hotels or posted by the public.

But there's enough there to get you started. Once you find hotels that appear to take the environment seriously, check their websites or call or email to get more details. Those committed to sustainable tourism will be ready to share their environmental, employment and cultural policies.

- Eco Hotels of the World (www.ecohotelsoftheworld.com) is a British directory of more than 100 hotels making an effort to be green. Criteria include energy and water use, recycling and garbage efforts, conservation, incorporating local cultural considerations and investing in the local community. Search by number of "green stars" (based on criteria listed on the site) or by location.

- The Green Hotels Association (www.greenhotels.com) has been around for 15 years, so it's not a greeny come lately. It's a voluntary association of hotels trying to reduce their environmental impact. Its site has a directory of members, news on hotel environmental efforts, as well as tips on greening up your vacation.

- Environmentally Friendly Hotels (www.environmentallyfriendlyhotels.com) is a directory that bases its ratings on a list of green attributes (alternative energy, composting, water recycling, etc.), and allows visitors to submit reviews.

- The Hotel Association of Canada has a "Green Key ECO-Rating" program, a voluntary, self-administered system. Hotels fill out a form about their environmental efforts and are assigned a number of "green keys" depending on their measures. A website (www.hacgreenhotels.com) lists participating hotels.

MORE TIPS

- The Lonely Planet guidebook publisher has a comprehensive online guide to responsible travel, which it defines as being "about minimizing your impact and maximizing your connection with people and the environment." Visit www.lonelyplanet.com and click Responsible Travel.

- The Sierra Club, an environmental group, can help you plan your vacation. Take one of its quizzes (www.sierraclub.org/howgreen/) to test your environmental awareness about the greenness of your destination and of different modes of transportation.

- Fodors, the travel guide publisher, offers 10 Tips for Greener Travel on its site (http://tinyurl.com/6htzpy) and recently published Green Travel, a good guidebook to 100 environmentally responsible accommodations around the world.

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